muscle growth

If your goal is to build lean muscle there are some strategies that will
improve your progress and results.

Building muscle takes time, we need to be patient but if we want to gain
muscle while staying lean we need to pay close attention to our workout
program, nutrition and sleep so that everything is working together making sure
that we are able to gain muscle without gaining too much fat.

For training there are two training tools that we need to consider which
are:

Resistance training

We know that lifting weights is key for any program and for muscle
growth we need to focus on both types of hypertrophy (click here if you want to
learn about hypertrophy) so we need to work on the 6 to 8 rep range with
bodyweight and compound movements and we also need to add isolation exercises
to work in the 10 to 12 or even 15 reps.

We also need to consider volume, since we are eating more we can add
more volume to our workouts to give our muscles the stimulus they need to grow,
if we combine both types of hypertrophy we will be working with enough volume
and we also need to consider the frequency which is one of the variables of
training, (click here to learn more about this variable) for muscle growth
working each muscle 2 times a week gives us the best results.

Cardio training

Some of us hate cardio and as we´ve seen in other posts it´s not the
best way to lose fat and of course we can skip completely for muscle growth but
we can´t deny that it has amazing benefits for health and it can help us
recover from our workouts so if you still want to add cardio to your workouts
you can do 20 to 30 minutes of steady state. When our goal is muscle growth, I
don´t recommend HIIT because it can impair recovery.

Another way we can use cardio is by practicing any sport, from soccer,
basketball, boxing, swimming, jump rope. It can also help us burn some calories,
so it gives us the freedom to eat a little more.

As for any fitness goal we need to make sure that we´re working as hard
as possible in the gym, we need to make every rep count and every workout
count, the more effort we put in every work the better the results, we need to
give our all if we want amazing results. Remember that our results go in direct
proportion to our effort, hard work and consistency.

When we combine both types of hypertrophy with moderate volume and
frequency we got the right workout program for muscle growth but we can´t
forget that our nutrition needs to be in point, we need to give our body enough
nutrients to recover and grow. Exercise gives our body and muscles the stimulus
to grow and nutrition give our body the nutrients to repair and grow and sleep
is necessary also to recover and grow.

If we don´t get this 3 principles of fitness right we won´t get the
results we´re looking for, I know it may be a lot of information but our goal
is that you understand how things work so that you can design your own programs
for any fitness goal, you can follow our Ultimate Muscle Growth program that we
created considering the 5 principles of fitness and applying all the
information we share, it´s all laid down there you only need to put the hard
word and be consistent.

Since muscle growth takes time we need to focus on progress, we don´t
want to gain as much weight as possible because most of that weight may come
from fat and we don´t want that, progressive overload (we´re going to talk
about this in a post) is a must for resistance training if we want to get the
best results possible.

Let us know by leaving a comment on our Facebook and Twitter account if
your goal is muscle growth and how does your program look like? Do you follow a
bodybuilding type of program?

It would mean so much to me if you share this post with your friends and
family and if you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, together we can help
millions live a better life.

In the last training post we talked about muscle fibers and how they
play an important role for any fitness goal, today we´re going to talk about
how those two types of muscle fibers are related to hypertrophy which is
something we need to understand for muscle growth if we want to get the best
results.

There are 2 types of hypertrophy which are sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar.
The 2 of them are related to the muscle fibers because depending of the rep
range we are working is how we target each of them.

In sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
the muscle increases in size because more fluid gets into the cell, we target
slow twitch muscle fibers which are type 1, working around the 12 to 15 reps
per set or more. If we want to get “the pump” this is where you need
to focus on, this is also the most common rep range and the one we´ll see a lot
more on gyms.

Since we are lifting light weights for high reps, we can use the 3 types
of exercises; bodyweight, compound and isolation (I´m writing a post for each).

This type of hypertrophy makes us a slave to the gym, we need to be
training to keep the muscle otherwise we lose it. Is easier and faster to gain
muscle and to look big with this one but if we take some time off the gym, we
lose those gains.

In myofibrillar hypertrophy
the muscle cell increases in number, we target fast twitch muscle fibers which
are type 2, working around the 5 to 8 reps per set. If we want to build lean
dense muscle this is where we need to focus on.

Since we are lifting heavy weights for low reps, we can use bodyweight
and compound exercises which are the ones we can lift heavy weight, with
isolation we can´t lift heavy because we can get injured.

This type of hypertrophy takes more time to build and to get big but
it´s there to last, we can take some time off the gym and it will take longer
until we lose that muscle. What we need to consider is that here we are working
our central nervous system and it takes more time to recover.

If our goal is only to gain strength we need to work on the 5 to 8 rep
range which is type 2 or fast twitch muscle fibers if our goal is to get muscle
mass faster we need to work on the 12 to 15 rep range which is type 1 or slow
twitch muscle fibers. The best option for muscle growth is to work on both
creating a program that focuses some days on sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and other
days on myofibrillar hypertrophy or creating a program where we can combine
both in the same workout.

When we combine both types of hypertrophy we make sure that we build
lean dense muscle which takes longer but also last longer and we get “the
pump” to look bigger, this also help us design workouts with high volume
which is also key for muscle growth, there are many variables that come into
play (we´re going to talk about all of them in separated posts for each) and
that we need to consider to make sure that we give our muscles the stimulus
they need but also enough recovery to grow.

We also need to consider that muscle growth is the results of the right
stimulus, recovery and proper nutrition which we´re going to talk about in a
separate post.

As I´ve said before, exercise is key to help us lose weight and get lean
but we need to understand more complex information like muscle fibers and
hypertrophy to be able to build the type of physique we want and get the best
results.

Let us know by leaving a comment on our Twitter and Facebook account if
you find this information useful and if you’d like us to create programs based
on all the information, we´re sharing with you.

It would so much to me if you share this post with your friends and
family and if you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, together we can help
millions live a better life.

Let me ask you a question, why did you decided to go to the gym and
start working out? Did you wanted to lose weight and get in shape or were you
skinny and wanted to gain some muscle and look stronger.

For most of us our fitness journey starts from insecurities, whether we
are overweight and want to lose weight and get in shape or we are skinny, and
we want to gain muscle. Whatever the case if we follow the right program, we
can get obsessed with improving our physique which takes us to a research time
to find the best tools to gain lean muscle mass without too much fat.

For some of us trying to gain muscle while staying lean can be hard to
do, some prefer to go through a bulking phase where they can gain a lot of
weight but if we don´t control the amount of food we eat we can end gaining a
lot of fat and not much muscle mass and then we need to go through a cutting
phase to lose all that extra fat.

Going through bulking and cutting phases is not the best way to do it
for some of us so there´s one tool that can help us gain lean muscle mass
without too much fat so that we stay lean and maintain a good physique and this
tool is:

Carbohydrate cycling

This tool is great at helping us gain muscle mass while staying lean. Of
course, this tool apply if we´re following a more balanced diet between
protein, fats and carbs.

For this tool we have 3 different days, one high carb day, one moderate
carb day and one low carb day. We need to fit each day according to our workout
program, on days where we do resistance training, we go high carb, on days we
do cardio we can go moderate card and on rest days we go low carb.

For high carb days we will be in a calorie surplus meaning that we´re
eating more and those extra calories come from carbohydrates, this days the
extra calories can go up to 500, on moderate days we also follow a calorie
surplus but that extra calories only increase from 250 – 300 calories and on
low carb days we eat at maintenance.

The reason why I said that on cardio days we can go moderate carbs is
because on those days we can also go low carb or maintenance, it all depends of
how our body responds and how we feel.

By increasing calories by increasing carbs on resistance training days
we make sure that we give more energy to our body the days it needs them more
and on rest days where we don´t use that much energy we keep calories at
maintenance so that we don´t lose weight but we don´t gain weight neither.
Cardio days are the ones we need to make more trial and error to find out if we
need a little calorie surplus or if we can stay at maintenance.

Intermittent fasting

We´ve talked about fasting in other posts and all the health benefits
and also how it can help us lose fat, but it can also help us gain muscle while
staying lean.

The best way to use this tool is by fasting every day following an 8
hour eating window and 16 hours fast, the best option is to fit the 8 hour
eating window around hour workout time, this way we make sure that we give
nutrients to hour body the time it needs them more for energy for the workout
and to recover after the workout.

If we combine this 2 tools we will get great results, but we need to be
patient, it takes time to build muscle and if we try to speed up the results we´ll
end gaining a lot of fat so slow and steady wins.

You need to consider that there´s not a best way to do it, this are just
2 strategies, but you need to try them and find out what works best for you.

I´ll to be honest with you, I don´t like following a certain program for
muscle growth or fat loss for long periods of time, for fat loss I´ll lower
calories for 5 to 6 weeks most and then do 2 or 3 weeks at maintenance, for
muscle growth I´ll go 12 to 14 weeks in a calorie surplus and then reduce calories
to maintenance for 3 or 4 weeks.

If you´ve tried to gain lean muscle mass but you gain too much fat a
long the way let us know which strategies were you following by leaving a
comment on our Facebook and Twitter account so that we can help you improve you
food program to achieve the best results.

It would mean so much to me if you share this post with your friends and
family and if you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, together we can help
millions live a better life.

If you want to be able to lose weight, get in shape and sustain your
results effortless then improving body composition is key and muscle growth is
one of the 2 pieces of this puzzle.

Improving body composition means maintaining a healthy weight with the
right percentage of lean muscle mass and body fat.

Maintaining lean muscle mass is important and needs to be one of our
priorities, the more muscle we have the faster our metabolism works so it´s
easier to lose fat and stay lean but it also help us avoid injuries and stay
healthy. There are 2 most common ways we lose muscle; one is related to some
diseases and the other is age.

As we get older our body goes through different changes and one of this
change is the loss of muscle mass with this come a lot of negative consequences
like loss of strength which lead to injuries and other health problems.

Making sure that we get in shape and maintain an optimal weight that
considers the right percentage of body fat and muscle mass helps us look lean
and toned and as I´ve said before it´s not necessary to get big. Making sure
that we maintain muscle mass or build muscle mass to maintain a healthy weight
is important to maintain strength so that we reduce the risk of injuries as we
grow older. As we grow older we lose muscle mass and strength so by working out
focusing on resistance training to maintain strength and give our body the
stimulus it needs to maintain that muscle we make sure that we´re not losing
it, this also helps us get through daily activities like lifting bags and
boxes, pushing and pulling boxes, enjoying time outside in nature with friends
and family.

I´ve heard some people say that when you reach a certain age, like 70 or
80 you are not able to gain muscle mass but this is actually not true, we can
build lean muscle mass at any age if we do it correctly, we need to give our
muscles the right stimulus to grow and we also need to give our body the
nutrients it needs to grow muscle and we need to be on a calorie surplus, if we
do those three points correctly then we are able to gain muscle at any age.

We want to maintain strength and get stronger, not only to maintain and
gain muscle mass and this doesn´t mean that we need to get huge as
bodybuilders, we maintain a lean and strong physique. Maintaining strength and
muscle is important for maintaining optimal health and maintain optimal
performance as you grow older, you want to be able to carry bags and boxes when
you go for groceries, you want to have lean and strong legs to walk and move
from one place to another.

The best way to maintain strength and get stronger and also to maintain
and build muscle mass is with bodyweight and compound exercises, we can add
some isolation exercises to work certain weaker muscles and gain more mass
faster but the key is to get stronger in bodyweight and compound exercises, for
this we need to focus on progressive overload (we´re going to talk about
exercises variables and techniques in future posts) working on the 5 to 8 rep
ranges with heavy weight. What we want is to lift heavy weight for low
reps.

When we focus on maintaining strength and getting stronger keeping body
fat low we´re working on improving body composition, this helps us look great
and it´s easier to maintain the results and keep improving. Any excess of
weight including excess of muscle mass in unhealthy this is why our goal is to
improve body composition and maintain a healthy weight considering muscle mass
and body fat. We want to be lean and strong.

Our goal is to improve body composition and maintain a healthy weight
that considers body fat and muscle mass percentage, but we not only want to
look as great as possible we also want to make sure that our body and physique are
useful.

It would mean so much to me if you share this post with your friends and
family and if you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, together we can help
millions live a better life.

When we want to gain muscle, we know that we need to eat more so some of
us think about it as a way to fit more unhealthy foods into their diet but is
this a good option?

If we think only about calories then we can make those extra calories
come from unhealthy foods but from a macronutrient ratio this can change, we
know that our body needs nutrients to function properly and to sustain our
fitness goals, our body need nutrients to recover and grow, we give our muscle
the stimulus to grow in the gym and then we give it the nutrients it needs
which are proteins and fats and carbohydrates if we follow a balanced diet.

We all know that we need to avoid unhealthy foods for health reasons so the best option would be to stick to whole,
fresh foods and just eat more of them now, do we need to avoid unhealthy foods
for muscle growth? it all depends of you and your body, some of us are able to
eat a good amount of processed, junk and fast food while building muscle but
most of us will find it difficult and the reason why is this, unhealthy foods
are calorically dense and lack nutrition, this means that one single unhealthy
food is high in calories and very low in nutrition, from a calories standpoint
we´ll need to eat small portions of those foods but we´ll have cravings, we
won´t have enough energy for our workouts, we´ll feel tired and our body won´t
have nutrients to function, recover and grow.

So even when we can eat more we still need to focus on whole healthy
foods, but we can add more “cheat meals” (I don´t like the term cheat
meals, I´ll tell you in other post why) when our goal is fat loss we can have
one cheat meal every week or maybe one every two weeks, when our goal is muscle
growth we can have one cheat a week or some of us can have two, it all depends
of our body and how we feel.

Some people consider cheat meals a good way to replenish glycogen,
increase calorie intake one day and keep cravings low, even when this works I
still recommend to stick to whole, fresh foods there are so many different
snacks and foods we can have which are healthy.

There are some special occasions that I would eat unhealthy meals which
are birthdays and Holidays, in my case we have 3 birthdays we celebrate per
year and 3 Holidays which those Holidays go from December 24 to January 10.

The reason why I don´t recommend following restrictive diets is so that
we have the freedom to enjoy so many different meals from any country, the only
rule is that those meals are cooked and prepared with whole, fresh ingredients,
if we follow this guide we can have dessert once or twice a week without
calling it cheat meal. And the reason why I recommend avoiding unhealthy
processed foods like sweets, junk and fast foods is because they are high in
sugars, unhealthy fats oils and chemicals that our body doesn´t need.

If we follow those rules it´s easier for us to develop the habit of
eating healthy which makes it easier for us to achieve any fitness goal because
we know that we just eat a little less to lose fat and a little more to gain
muscle.

As we´ve mentioned before fitness it´s not only about achieving the
physique we want that´s only part of our goal, we use fitness as a tool to
maintain optimal health so that we can live the life we deserve by living to
our full potential, we can adjust all fitness tools to help us achieve the
physique we want while making sure that we´re maintaining optimal health and
weight and we also want our physique to be useful not only to look great. This
is why I recommend whole fresh foods, we know that highly processed and refined
foods are unhealthy, there are some foods that I prefer to avoid as much as possible
it doesn´t matter which fitness goal I´m working on.

We all know that food is a big part of our lives but we can make it work
for us, food brings people together and traditional meals help us learn from
each country, cooking also brings people together and brings joy to our lives.
Learning how to cook is an amazing skill that we can all benefit from and we
don´t need to be master chefs.

It would mean so much to me if you share this post with your friends and
family and if you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, together we can help
millions live a better life.

Some of us love to lift weights and getting stronger in the gym while
others hate it or are afraid that if they lift weights they will get big, this
applies to guys and girls. The reason why we start our fitness journey varies,
in some cases we are overweight and we want to lose weight and get in shape
while others are skinny and want to gain some muscle, in both cases that core
reason why we start exercising is because of insecurities. It doesn´t matter if
we´re overweight or skinny people made fun of us so we want to change the way
we look and improve our body physically which making this decision is one of
the best decisions we can make in our entire life.

If you are one of those guys or girls who hate or are afraid of lifting
weights because you think you will get big like a bodybuilder then there are
some things you need to know.

The truth about muscle growth is that it takes time to build muscle and
we need a really good program that gives us the results. Muscle growth is the
result of consistent training, a workout program that consider all variables of
training and some advanced training techniques, the nutrition program needs to
be on point, enough recover, enough good quality sleep.

I want to be clear here, all those bodybuilders that are huge most of
them use drugs and that´s the results of many , many years of consistent hard
work and dedication in and outside the gym, they spend hours working out
sometimes even twice a day, they are so strict with their nutrition, they
prioritize sleep because they know it´s crucial for recovery and grow, their
workout programs are designed to work each muscle group as hard as possible and
then give it enough time to recover and the right amount of food so that their
body is able to grow and they also use supplements and some of them use drugs.

For the rest of us, if we´re not into bodybuilding, we´re not competing
and our goal is only to get the best physique possible we don´t need to put
that dedication and focus on our fitness program and most of us won´t do it so
we just need to use fitness as a tool to help us live our best life possible, a
life that we are proud of and this means that we can get in amazing shape and
have an amazing physique but we don´t need to spend so much time at the gym and
we can have more freedom with our food choices.

We can gain muscle without spending too much time at the gym, without
being too strict with our diet and without drugs but we still need to work hard
and be consistent, it takes more time to gain lean muscle mass than to lose
fat so be patient.

The best part is that we will only gain as much muscle as we want, if we
don´t want to get big we don´t get big we just improve body composition and
maintain a healthy weight with a good balance between muscle mass and body
fat to look lean and toned. If we want to gain more muscle and look as a
superhero it´s also possible but it depends of us, of our goals, the type of
physique we want.

What I recommend is that no matter how big or lean you want to be we
make sure that we improve overall performance, the goal of being in amazing
shape is also that we can perform every daily activity with ease. That we can
go through our day with high energy and
that we also have some endurance, strength, agility, flexibility to go on
vacations and be able to enjoy the trip. We want to build an amazing physique
that is useful not only that looks great and we want to make sure that we
maintain a healthy weight considering body composition. I don´t think being to
big is healthy whether it´s fat or muscle with excess weight our body needs to
work a lot harder to keep oxygen and blood circulating though the entire body
and there are more negative consequences in the long term.

As for any fitness goal and actually anything in life muscle growth requires hard and smart work and discipline, if you are able to build discipline in the gym to achieve your fitness goal and get the physique you want and then you can take that discipline and apply it to all other areas of your life you will achieve anything you want and live the most incredible life.

Muscle growth.

It would mean so much to me if you share this post with your friends and
family and if you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, together we can help
millions live a better life.

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About us

We profoundly believe that it´s possible to live a better life while enjoying every single moment of it as much as possible, we believe that keeping things simple and effective is the way to go, we prefer to keep things old school and stick with the basics.